Conventionally, guide wires had to be at least twice as long as the medical instrument (a catheter, etc.) they would guide into a subject's body. The total length of such a guide wire includes: a distal first portion that resides within the subject's body as the medical instrument is being introduced into the subject's body; a central second portion, which remains outside of the subject's body, for receiving the medical instrument prior to its introduction into the subject's body; and a proximal third portion that enables a healthcare provider to hold the guide wire in place as the medical instrument is being introduced into the subject's body.
Because of their lengths, and particularly due to the lengths of the portions of long guide wires that remain outside of a subject's body, long guide wires are occasionally contaminated, for example, by contacting the floor or some other contaminating surface. A contaminated guide wire may also contaminate a medical instrument it will guide into the body of a subject. Accordingly, when the exterior portion of a guide wire is contaminated before the guide wire has been used to introduce a medical instrument into the body of a subject, it must be replaced. Removal and replacement of a contaminated guide wire wastes money and time, and increases the risk of injury to the subject.
In an effort to avoid contamination of long guide wires, as well as the consequences of contamination, many health care professionals receive assistance from another individual. The use of additional manpower increases the cost of the procedure to the healthcare provider and, ultimately, to its patients.
The problems associated with contamination in many interventional procedures have been reduced by replacing long guide wires with so-called “rapid exchange,” or “RX,” solutions. Shorter guide wires may be used to introduce rapid exchange devices, such as RX catheters, into subjects' bodies. With shorter guide wires, the risk of contamination is reduced, as there is little likelihood that a shorter guide wire will contact a contaminating surface.
While rapid exchange technology works well under many circumstances, the features that enable rapid exchange consume valuable cross-sectional area and volume (e.g., in the form of diminished lumen sizes, etc.) within medical instruments. Thus, in situations where optimal cross-sectional areas and volumes are needed to provide optimal performance (e.g., in aspiration catheters, etc.), the use of rapid exchange features diminish the performance of a medical instrument.
Extendable guide wires have been developed to provide a short wire for certain applications (e.g., rapid exchange, etc.) and a longer wire for other situations. Conventionally, the only guide wires that could be extended are those that are configured for extension. Conventional extendable guide wires and their cooperating guide wire extenders typically include complementary engagement features that mate or otherwise cooperate with one another. Furthermore, the engagement features of conventional extendable guide wires are typically configured to couple to one another while maintaining the overall outer dimensions (e.g., outer diameter (OD), etc.) and shapes of the guide wires. These features render extendible guide wires quite a bit more expensive than conventional guide wires. Accordingly, health care professionals must anticipate situations where extendible guide wires will be needed, or unnecessarily increase the cost of procedures where they are not needed. Moreover, an extended guide wire is as prone to contamination as a conventional long guide wire.